Added on September 13, 2012  Evan Burkey

PAX Prime 2012 – Raiderz

Perfect World’s other MMORPG they were showing off at PAX is Raiderz, another free to play Action RPG. How does it stack up against the competition? Take a look inside!

Raiderz plays a lot like other action MMORPGs, with the left mouse button being a basic attack and the right mouse being a secondary attack or a basic block with a shield. The game could be compared to TERA in that it is hit detection based, so dodging and blocking play a major role in combat. The game’s focus definitely draws from the Monster Hunter series, in that your character’s main motivation is loot and trophies from giant monsters.. and there are many giant monsters out there to kill.

The class system in Raiderz is unique and very cool. There are no set classes, instead you put talent points into 4 different trees. As you put points in these trees, you gain new abilities that are tied to weapon types. For instance, you can wield a sword and shield. This gives you access to Guardian and Sorceror skills, but then you can quickly swap to a 2 handed mace for Berserker abilities.

Another neat feature is the ability to pick up enemy’s weapons, or in some cases strewn body parts, and use them against other foes. During my hands on time, my Fighter/Sorceror hybrid character would regularly kill Kobolds and use their guns against others. This also extends into an interesting transformation system, where you can in mid-battle transform into different monsters and gain their abilities. This feature allows for very diverse play styles, as each monster has it’s own unique set of skills.

At the end of my playthrough, I was faced with a massive Gryphon, which yo can see in the screenshot above. This boss requires multiple players working together, and between myself and a another player we were able to do some damage, but not enough. The game really focuses on teamwork, after all the motto of Raiderz is “Hunt together, or die alone!” I enjoyed my time with Raiderz, and look forward to more info in the future. The game looks and plays smoothly, and is on track to be released at the end of the year.